This proposal describes a plan to further test a socioecological model of risk and protective factors for adolescent alcohol consumption using data from a longitudinal study of urban adolescents. The sample includes 850 youth (709 African Americans, 141 Whites;425 females). A response rate of 91% was maintained from Years 1 through 4. Studies investigating the factors associated with adolescent alcohol use have often overlooked neighborhood effects. Fewer researchers have explored the factors that might protect youth against neighborhood risk effects. Moreover, among the studies examining the effects of risk/protective factors on adolescent alsochol use, few have explored the mechanisms of an interactive process between risk and protective factors longitudinally. To address these gaps in the literature, we will first examine the association between neighborhood context (concentrated disadvantage and residential instability) and alcohol use employing 2-level HLM models in which individuals are nested within neighborhoods. For neighborhood variables identified as risk factors for alcohol use, individual coping resources and social integration (i.e., protective factors) will be studied to determine if they operate to help youth overcome neighborhood risk effects. In addition, we will also identify the trajectories of cumulative risk and protective factors and investigate the longitudinal links of these factors with the development of alcohol use during high school. Growth curve modeling and semi-parametric mixture modeling will be utilized in these analyses. Using resiliency perspective to guide our hypothese about the mechanisms by which protective factors help offset or reduce the risk effetcs, we will examine the risk and protective factors across individual, family, peer group, and neighborhood domains.Project Narative Alcohol use during adolescence remains a prominent public health problem in the United States. The proposed study is designed to help us understand those factors that may help youth overcome the adverse effects of neighborhood risks on alcohol use. The findings may be used to develop intervention strategies that build upon strengths in youths'lives to prevent alcohol use.